5.27.2011

The house is really coming along these days... The garden is full of big beautiful plants, We're getting a new roommate soon, her name is Brit. Ryan put his AC in his room yesterday, it was 96 degrees! In fact yesterday and the day before were both really productive.

So with the whole new roommate thing. Currently our house is Vanessa, Ryan, and myself. And between the 3 of us we have an overwhelming 10 bicycles. These are all kept inside, In our tiny walk way next to the stairwell. They often overflow into the other two rooms this hallway is attached to. Many times you'll open our front door to bring a bike in and find there is hardly enough room to get in the house, this happens if a few friends come by. Anyway, with a new roommate comes a new bicycle. So we decided it was time to get some of them up and off the floor and out of the way.

We Built this beauty on wednesday afternoon.

We decided to only hang the lightest bicycles on this rack since we are hanging so many on it. Vanessa went for a ride out to a farm with two friends to help work for a few hours this morning, thats why there is an open spot.

It's Transformed the entire room. We have bigger visions of hanging a few more bicycles and getting some chairs for that table so we can have real family dinners and such.

Also on that same day, we rebuilt the Teepee structure. We had taken it down a week or so after putting it up the first time because our landlord needed to do some work to a tree in our backyard and it was in the way. But now its back up and much bigger and better.

The plan is to leave it as is for the summer months. Far to hot to think we could possibly hang out in a wrapped up teepee anytime between now and september. But over the summer months we hope to work on the tarp we have to wrap it with and have it ready to be put up by fall. Giving us an outdoor/indoor fire pit hang out area for the entire fall and winter.You can see it in the back there. The tallest bamboo poles are the height of our house. Before we get it wrapped up we want to make a flag or two to hang up there.

In other off time we've been gardening as usual and finally getting to eat some of the fruit/veggies of our labor. We have been filling our salad bowls regularly with fresh lettuce, spinach, Radishes and most recently swiss chard. The tomato plants are starting to bloom and we've got a plant full of jalapenos waiting to be picked. Other things were growing include potatoes, red onions, Serrano hot peppers, Sunflowers, carrots, butternut squash, a bunch of different herbs (basil,mint,oregano,summer savory, cilantro) and lots of other flowers to attrack all the good bugs to get rid of the bad ones.You can do a lot with a little bit of space. I've had a good time trying to figure out the best ways to utilize what we have.

But like I last wrote, as much as we love everything that we are doing right now, we also really want to do something new that we have wanted to do for a long time. So after searching for the right opportunity we have found a place in need of our help and it sounds perfect. From mid June till the beginning of August we will spend our time on the Calliope Farm in the eastern part of maryland. Its a small family farm just 6 miles outside of salisbury maryland, about 40 minutes to ocean city. They farm about 3 of their 50 acres for a variety of vegetables and berries. They run a small scale CSA and sell at two farmers markets each week. Our jobs will include harvesting, weeding, farmers markets, csa pickups, building projects, canning/preserving, transplanting and anything else we can learn about. They also have a flock of laying hens and two nubian dairy goats but thats just for their personal needs not for market. We'll essentially just be volunteering in exchange for room/board. and the experience and knowledge of the owners of this land. Its a newer farm, Owned by a couple who have a 2.5 year old son. They bought this land just 4 years ago. They sounds really nice, vanessa and I are really excited to go spend our summer with them. The internet has only provided me with these two pictures of where we'll be.

Hopefully in about a month or so I'll have pictures of my own.

So we will leave Richmond behind for a short while. We'll be passing off watering responsibilities to Ryan and Britt if they wish to take care of our garden. We will harvest the late season stuff upon returning.

The next 5 months are going to be good. really really good. We'll go spend some time working in the sun of maryland, Come back to Richmond just in time for best friends day activities and August HEAT, start working, then fly to San Diego at the end of september for a week, and we have a weekend trip to NY planned for october for my cousins wedding.

Im glad I over worked myself at a job I didn't love for a few months. For if I didn't, none of this would be happening.

5.19.2011

We have a flyer hanging in our kitchen for a show that we went to while we visited Richmond on our bicycle trip last year. There are lots of flyers and posters in our kitchen, mostly of things ryans been to, or just cool posters we have found that we like, and this one particular show flyer because it was a really great time, it was a show at the house a bunch of our friends live at, and our friends played as well. ANDDD it was the 2 day of our 4 day stay in richmond, VA.

Anyway, what im getting at is this. Vanessa and I went over to our friends mark and Courtneys house two nights ago for dinner and hanging. We met some of their friends who live own and work on a farm west of here call " Root Force". Our bicycle journey of a year ago came up in conversation. I then thought out loud about how it was probably almost exactly a year ago that we rolled into Richmond for the first time ever and it was the very next day that we met both Mark and Courtney at that house show because mark was in one of the bands that played. And in that moment I looked above mark and saw the flyer for that show, the same one we have on our wall, posted on the wall behind him. Which reads the date " May 18th". It was an "ahha" moment. Because it wasn't almost exactly a year prior. It was exactly to the date, one year ago that day that we first came to richmond Va. And there we were, having dinner with two people we met who were open and friendly and inviting since the day we met.

I remember courtney telling us to come over for apple dumplings the morning after the show, she lived in a house directly behindryan at that time. We got there to late, for it was the first time since we left sandiego that we had partied to that extent, we slept in later then usual.

But here we are, one year later. Sharing a home with an old friend of vanessas but surrounded by new friends we had not yet knew we would have one year ago.

We are of course, once again getting the itch to do something new and exciting and productive and fun. A lot of ideas are being tossed around. We aren't looking to run away from richmond, but we are looking to take advantage of our super cheap rent and try and go do something for a month or so this summer. Ideally we want to work on a farm or stay at a homestead. Get some real experience in the areas we have been pushing our lifestyle towards. We just want to see some new places, do some new things, and learn as much as possible about the life we aretrying to work towards. AND then hopefully come back here for the fall and winter or the remainder of the summer as well and work and save money and plan for next years plans. Oo and fly out to San Diego for a week at the end of september! bought our tickets a month ago!

While im not at work this is what my time has been put towards, our front stoop!

About Me

Born and raised on Long Island, NY. 2nd of two children. son of Mary Kate, and harry. Brother of Lauren. Friend to friends. Currently living in Richmond, VA. Coffee drinking, Bicycle riding, AK, Lurker, Bolt, Solid Gold, Bike Club, Good Guy Bad Dude, good time livin son of a gun. whatcha know about it!